The invention generally relates to batteries and more specifically to a battery apparatus for a device.
In recent years, improvements in battery technology and electronic device efficiency have made portable electronic devices popular. While once requiring power from a conventional wall outlet or a vehicle""s ignition system, electronic devices, such as computers or cellular telephones, can now be powered by lightweight batteries. Such batteries are typically in the form of a rechargeable battery packxe2x80x94multiple rechargeable electrochemical cells disposed within a housingxe2x80x94manufactured to attach to portable electronic devices. Upon attachment, electrical contacts located on the battery pack housing contact mating contacts located on the device housing to connect the cells of the battery to the circuitry in the device. The portable electronic device operates until the electrochemical cells within the battery pack become depleted. The battery must then be recharged.
Once depleted, the user has three options: First, he may remove the depleted battery pack and attach another charged battery pack to continue operation of the portable electronic device. Second, he may attach a charger or cigarette lighter adapter capable of powering the phone. Third, he can discontinue use of the phone and place the phone in a charger to allow the depleted battery to recharge.
Each of these options has a distinct disadvantage. For the first option of switching batteries, removal of the battery pack, even momentarily, effectively disconnects the portable electronic device from its power source. Where a cellular phone user is participating in a call, removal of the battery pack causes the call to be terminated. This is an annoying exercise and is considered to be down right rude in some social circles.
The second option, that is connecting the phone to a power supply, is also inconvenient in that the user now becomes tethered to a wall or car as the power supply must also have a power source. The convenience of a portable phone is now eliminated. What is the point of a portable cellular telephone if you have to stay connected to a wall? One might as well use a conventional telephone with a wire that is permanently attached to the wall!
The third option, that of putting a phone in a charger, renders the phone useless in that any call that was being made must not only be terminated, but further can not be reinitiated until the battery is sufficiently charged. This can take up to and over an hour to accomplish.
Unfortunately, the demand for cellular phone talk time is outpacing the development in energy storage capacity of electrochemical cells. In other words, people are demanding more energy from a phone in a day than can be delivered by a single cell. For example, with the recent decline in cellular telephone rates, some people talk on cellular telephones for five or more hours per day, while a typical cellular telephone battery may only offer about three hours of talk time before a recharge is required.
Some cellular phone manufacturers have attempted to reconcile this problem by making auxiliary batteries that have higher capacities than do standard batteries. For example, Motorola manufactures several different size batteries for its ever-popular StarTac Series phone. The highest capacity battery is commonly referred to as the auxiliaryxe2x80x94or xe2x80x9cauxxe2x80x9d xe2x80x94battery. U.S. Design Pat. No. D400,495 illustrates the housing for such a battery. Unfortunately, however, some people do not own a high-capacity, or xe2x80x9cauxxe2x80x9d, battery. They may only own the standard battery (illustrated in U.S. Design Pat. No. D374,424).
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method that permits the user to extend the operation of the device without the need for an auxiliary battery.